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The Australian Small Business Blog

Tuesday, February 03, 2015

Does Business Coaching Work?

Whenever we want to try something new to improve our life, whether we want to get fit, lose weight or improve our business, we ask ourselves, will it work?
We have all seen the before and after photos of people who have lost weight from some miracle diet, and guys who have gone from flab to abs of steel. Similarly in business coaching we see the results of star clients who have doubled, tripled or more their results.

So we know it can work, but will it work for us?

Looking at the results of these programs, it clearly works for some people. There are just too many examples for them all to be faked. Diets do work, exercises will give you abs of steel if you keep at them, and implementing proven business strategies will achieve the results we all want.

But they don’t always. What’s the missing ingredient?

“Accountability breeds response-ability” Stephen Covey

The missing ingredient for business owners (and many personal goals) if we take a DIY approach, we are accountable only to ourselves, and without commitment, we soon tire of the effort involved without encouragement, support and being held to account.

“There are 3 specific activities that make it 67% more likely to achieve your goals:

1. Writing down your goals

2. Accountability

3. Commitment” Gail Matthews, Harvard

We still hesitate, often because we don’t know what we don’t know, primarily since it’s outside our experience.

Have you ever been to see a specialist with a medical issue that has been bugging you for some time, for something that you thought wasn’t too serious, but you decided that it was time you had someone look at it? Then within a single consultation, the specialist knew what was wrong, what would happen if you didn’t do something about it, and was able to prescribe a course of treatment to fix it. Then following their treatment plan, you recovered.

Are results guaranteed?

In the case of coaching, in one study by Metrix Global, they found that there was a 529%
return on investment and significant intangible benefits for those that undertook it.

The strategies do work. Studies and experience from clients prove they do. However the key is they only work if they are implemented. Coaches can help define and quantify your goals, prescribe a course of treatment, hold you to account, but the client has to be truly committed to following the treatment. This is not something the coach can guarantee, but it is something the client must.

Having a roadmap is important in coaching, as for any medical course of treatment so a very clear final goal is always visible making continued effort worthwhile.

These are the steps myclients took as we worked together.

1. They established hard measurable goals for their businesses.
2. They set in place strategies to achieve these goals.
3. They identified their roadblocks to success.
4. They dissected their market and changed their offer.
5. They re-organised their business and changed the way they worked.
6. They started measuring the results of the strategies they employed.
7. They adjusted their strategies according to their results.

This is what happened to their businesses:

1. They found they had more time to work ON their business.
2. Their businesses could make money even when they were not there.
3. They found it easier to get better, higher paying customers.
4. They didn’t have to hunt for customers- new customers came to them.
5. Their businesses became more predictable- they knew when and from where the next clients would come.
6. They felt in control of their businesses

…and this is what allowed them to make more money by working less, and with less stress!